View the video transcript below and share your thoughts on the economic concepts that you believe are applicable.

Question# 1. Why does a firm have to posses market power in order to raise prices.

How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers

JJ RAMBERG, anchor:

With gas prices soaring and the economy tightening, you may think itâs not possible to charge your customers more. But, it turns out you can successfully raise prices without driving those customers away. Bob Prosen runs the consulting company, Prosen Center for Business. Heâs helped business leaders rapidly increase performance, productivity and profits, and heâs also author of the book, âKiss Theory Goodbye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company.â Bob, welcome.

Mr. BOB PROSEN: Thank you. RAMBERG: So, if youâre going to raise prices on your customers, one of the things you say is donât surprise them. So, how do you give them warning?

Mr. PROSEN: Well, our customers are very important to us, lets not surprise them. Letâs let them know in advance that prices will increase. But, itâs important to explain to them in their language as to why prices are increasing. For instance, if its fuel surcharges, theyâll understand that. But its important we put it in their language so that they, in turn, can pass that along and plan for it in their own business.

RAMBERG: So, a lot of times when people are paying more, they expect to get more. So, you should communicate increased value I assume. But is saying, um--gas prices are going up for me, is that uh--the same as saying, youâre going to get more for your money?

Mr. PROSEN: No, definitely itâs not. In fact, the equation for value is benefits plus price. So, if prices are going to go up we have to have increased benefits for our customers. So, we can do things like under promise and over deliver. Give them a little bit more. Understand their customerâs customer. So that when we provide our services to them, theyâre customized for our customers. They see more value, we understand their business, and therefore theyâll be more appreciative of what we do and less sensitive to price increases.

RAMBERG: That seems to--to follow into your next point, or go right into your next point, which is, track the quality of your products.

Mr. PROSEN: This is absolutely critical, and we can track the quality of our products many ways. Customers call us, complaints, warranty, rework. If weâll deal with that, capture that, and inside of âKiss Theory Goodbyeâ I teach business people how to reduce these problem occurrences and increase the quality of their product. You do it for two reasons: One, customers like us a lot more when things work the way theyâre supposed to; and our cost structure goes down therefore maybe we donât have to increase our prices as much and we can be more competitive.

RAMBERG: And then, also, relationships matter.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh thisâ¦

RAMBERG: So, if you have a good relationship, you can do more within that relationship.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh, definitely. People like to do business with people they like. So, lets make sure we stay in touch with our clients. Customize what we touch them with. You know, for instance, when I travel and I deal with business people, I always carry thank you notes in my briefcase. When Iâm finished, I send them a note. Itâs a rarity these days to even get a thank you note.

RAMBERG: Yeah, it absolutely is. So, about how much can you raise prices by? Can you suddenly figure out that your costs are gone up so much because of energy prices, or food prices, or gas prices, whatever it is, um--and raise it by 50%? Should you do it incrementally? Should you do it all at once? How does it work?

Mr. PROSEN: Yeah, thatâs a great question. It depends on what industry youâre in. It depends on what you customers are doing. It depends on a number of things that determine how much, and when, and the frequency of our ability to raise prices. Therefore, what I always recommend to business leaders is work on your cost structure; make sure youâre efficient and effective. Keep your costs as low as you can. Therefore, you can be more competitive on your pricing. Sometimes, you have to pass along the price. Other times, try to absorb what you can through improved efficiencies.

RAMBERG: Should you be looking at your competitors and how much theyâre charging?

Mr. PROSEN: Yes, you should absolutely be looking at your competitors. We always want to know what theyâre charging. And by the way, we want to differentiate our products and services from our competitors. And, if we can prove a higher value by dealing with us versus our competitor we should be able to articulate that, and we do it based on facts because we know whatâs going on in the industry.

RAMBERG: Alright, Bob I know a lot of people are thinking about raising prices so thanks for giving them some tips on how to actually do it.

Mr. PROSEN: My pleasure.

View the video transcript below and share your thoughts on the economic concepts that you believe are applicable.

Question# 1. Provide a rationale on whether or not a firm has to possess market power in order to raise prices.

How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers

JJ RAMBERG, anchor:

With gas prices soaring and the economy tightening, you may think itâs not possible to charge your customers more. But, it turns out you can successfully raise prices without driving those customers away. Bob Prosen runs the consulting company, Prosen Center for Business. Heâs helped business leaders rapidly increase performance, productivity and profits, and heâs also author of the book, âKiss Theory Goodbye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company.â Bob, welcome.

Mr. BOB PROSEN: Thank you.

RAMBERG: So, if youâre going to raise prices on your customers, one of the things you say is donât surprise them. So, how do you give them warning?

Mr. PROSEN: Well, our customers are very important to us, lets not surprise them. Letâs let them know in advance that prices will increase. But, itâs important to explain to them in their language as to why prices are increasing. For instance, if its fuel surcharges, theyâll understand that. But its important we put it in their language so that they, in turn, can pass that along and plan for it in their own business.

RAMBERG: So, a lot of times when people are paying more, they expect to get more. So, you should communicate increased value I assume. But is saying, um--gas prices are going up for me, is that uh--the same as saying, youâre going to get more for your money?

Mr. PROSEN: No, definitely itâs not. In fact, the equation for value is benefits plus price. So, if prices are going to go up we have to have increased benefits for our customers. So, we can do things like under promise and over deliver. Give them a little bit more. Understand their customerâs customer. So that when we provide our services to them, theyâre customized for our customers. They see more value, we understand their business, and therefore theyâll be more appreciative of what we do and less sensitive to price increases.

RAMBERG: That seems to--to follow into your next point, or go right into your next point, which is, track the quality of your products.

Mr. PROSEN: This is absolutely critical, and we can track the quality of our products many ways. Customers call us, complaints, warranty, rework. If weâll deal with that, capture that, and inside of âKiss Theory Goodbyeâ I teach business people how to reduce these problem occurrences and increase the quality of their product. You do it for two reasons: One, customers like us a lot more when things work the way theyâre supposed to; and our cost structure goes down therefore maybe we donât have to increase our prices as much and we can be more competitive.

RAMBERG: And then, also, relationships matter.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh thisâ¦

RAMBERG: So, if you have a good relationship, you can do more within that relationship.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh, definitely. People like to do business with people they like. So, lets make sure we stay in touch with our clients. Customize what we touch them with. You know, for instance, when I travel and I deal with business people, I always carry thank you notes in my briefcase. When Iâm finished, I send them a note. Itâs a rarity these days to even get a thank you note.

RAMBERG: Yeah, it absolutely is. So, about how much can you raise prices by? Can you suddenly figure out that your costs are gone up so much because of energy prices, or food prices, or gas prices, whatever it is, um--and raise it by 50%? Should you do it incrementally? Should you do it all at once? How does it work?

Mr. PROSEN: Yeah, thatâs a great question. It depends on what industry youâre in. It depends on what you customers are doing. It depends on a number of things that determine how much, and when, and the frequency of our ability to raise prices. Therefore, what I always recommend to business leaders is work on your cost structure; make sure youâre efficient and effective. Keep your costs as low as you can. Therefore, you can be more competitive on your pricing. Sometimes, you have to pass along the price. Other times, try to absorb what you can through improved efficiencies.

RAMBERG: Should you be looking at your competitors and how much theyâre charging?

Mr. PROSEN: Yes, you should absolutely be looking at your competitors. We always want to know what theyâre charging. And by the way, we want to differentiate our products and services from our competitors. And, if we can prove a higher value by dealing with us versus our competitor we should be able to articulate that, and we do it based on facts because we know whatâs going on in the industry.

RAMBERG: Alright, Bob I know a lot of people are thinking about raising prices so thanks for giving them some tips on how to actually do it.

Mr. PROSEN: My pleasure.

You are doing a walk-through of the credit and collections function to get an idea of what internal controls exist and where there might be weaknesses. Then, after you finish, you or another member of the audit team will be testing the system to determine whether the internal controls actually exist and actually work as you have been told. In the meantime, keep your eyes, ears, and mind open for any weaknesses in internal control.

The department head of the credit and collections department is telling you how things work in the department. "Jenny, here, receives the mail and distributes it to the various collectors. They each open their own mail. There is a lot of correspondence going back and forth to and from customers, so it is easier if each collector just handles her own mail." It is easy for Jenny to distribute the mail because most of the letters are addressed to a specific individual.

You watch as one of the individuals opens the mail and handles the items inside. Many of the items are disputes-the customer says the items billed were not ordered, or, if ordered, were not received. Every such letter results in the disputed bill being written off. As the department head explains, the vice president of sales told him, a few years ago, that too many customers were complaining that the credit department was too tough on them, so he had decided that rather than have any more complaints, every such bill would be written off. The procedure is that the collector initiates a form, called a write-off form, to write off a particular amount from a customer's balance. In the explanation block, the collector simply writes "customer dispute." This form is signed by the collector, sent to accounting, and accounting processes the forms each Wednesday. There are so many letters with so many disputes that the department has a monthly competition for the most unusual letters, which are tacked up on a bulletin board. All the rest of the dispute letters are thrown away as soon as the collector has filled out the write-off form.

Collectors also receive checks in the mail. These are payments from customers whose accounts are wholly or partly overdue. As one of the collectors explains, they each receive a print-out once a month, so if the customer sends in a payment, there is no way for the collector to find out about it before the next month's print-out arrives unless the collector receives the payment. Most of the collectors process dozens of payments each month. They make whatever notations they need on the monthly print-out, prepare a deposit ticket, send the department's runner to the bank each Friday (collections are accumulated until Friday, with the customers' payments being held in an otherwise empty desk drawer until then), and send the receipted deposit ticket on to the department which records collections of cash. The credit and collections department also sends a listing of which customers to credit for having paid all or part of their balances.

Near the end of each fiscal quarter, the corporate controller gets a preliminary set of financial statements, and then he tells the department head by telephone how much the department is allowed to write off in bad debts. Thus, the company writes off bad debts only in the third month of each fiscal quarter. "Why does he tell you by telephone?" you ask of the credit and collections manager. "He doesn't want any written record of it," is the reply.

You are interested in how the department decides which customer balances to write off as uncollectible and which to leave on the books. "We write off the oldest ones, up to the amount of what we have been told we can write off," says the credit and collections manager. "That way, our percentage of bad debts always comes out pretty much in line with what we have done before, and the auditors have always been satisfied with it. They had read some academic articles from some people who recommended using time-series analysis to see if the numbers were correct, so they test the accounts receivable account and satisfy themselves that the sales and receivables are real, but they always test the write-offs and bad debts expense simply by using the time-series analysis recommended by the accountants with those fancy doctorates. Go ask the guy who ran the audit last year."

You inspect the process by which customer payments are received the regular way, which is done in a different department. The company has a special Post Office box set up. Twice a day, some one person from maintenance goes to the Post Office to pick up the mail, including the customer payments received at this special Post Office box. It is not always the same person from maintenance who goes to the Post Office; whoever is available when the department head looks around is typically the one who is sent.

When the person returns from the Post Office, he brings a bunch of mail to the cash receipts department, where the mail is opened and customers' checks are paperclipped to the envelopes they came in. One of the goals of the cash receipts department is to get the customer payments deposited promptly, so after all the checks are paper-clipped, someone from the department goes to the bank, fills out a whole bunch of deposit slips, deposits those checks, and comes back to the department with those receipted deposit slips. Then the department members try to figure out which customer paid which amounts. They are helped by the routing number on the checks, but those routing numbers represent banks, not customers, and multiple customers use the same banks. Consequently, they refer to a listing of routing numbers to identify the banks, then to a listing of banks to see which customers use those banks, and then to another copy of the same monthly print-out used in credit and collections to figure out which of the customers who use that bank must have paid that particular amount. If they cannot make a good guess, they call some of the customers to ask if they are the ones who paid the amount. Once they think they know who paid the amount, they generate a journal entry to debit cash and credit the customer's account; the credit to the customer's account is automatically also a credit to accounts receivable. Since they have a copy of the monthly printout of accounts receivable, when a customer's payment is not for the full amount of an invoice, they just go ahead and adjust that customer's account so the full amount of the invoice is taken off the customer's account. They say they are creating a lot of goodwill with customers that way.

a. What internal control weaknesses do you see in this system?

b. What are the potential effects of these weaknesses?

c. What do you recommend instead (that is, if you have such a recommendation)?

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